Dramatic irony
by Everything's Slipping Away
Summary: Death Note AU fic. A series of ironic accidents has begun. Katherine, L, and Light are suspicious of this, and begin to investigate, but this case isn't easy, as they are unaware of the powers of the Death Note. May end up in T rating territory
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: Ok, so this may end up as little Insert Sueish in places, but I figured I'd have something on standby to write if I'm ever bored or need cheering up. So, this is set in an Alternate Universe, for those unfamiliar with the term AU, so Light never took the Death Note. Please read, review, and enjoy._

Death Note AU: Oh the irony

Chapter 1

Katherine was walking home from another typical day at school, wondering if it had been such a good idea to move to Kanto. She'd been living in Japan for two months now, but she still only had casual acquaintances and people she barely knew, no proper friends. But she wouldn't have the money to move anywhere else until she could get a job, since her parents had spent enough to let her go to Japan in the first place and she didn't want to have to sponge off them again…they already paid her rent.

As Katherine strode down the familiar streets, the cherry blossom petals falling round her, she noticed Ami Hayashi, a girl she knew a bit from school, carrying what looked like a black notebook. Intrigued, Katherine tried to strike up a conversation, "Hey, Hayashi-san! Since we're walking the same way…why don't we walk together?"

"Hn?" Ami turned, thinking for a moment to remember who she was talking to, "Ohh, you're Bennett-san, the English girl. Well, I suppose since we're going in the same direction I can spare a little time for you."

Katherine grinned, not sure if Ami was being stuck up but hardly caring, "So, is that a new notebook? It looks really nice."

"This thing?" Ami smiled, but her eyes weren't smiling with her, "It's just something I found outside school. I thought I'd keep it, just in case it belongs to anyone. I mean, it'd get all dirty and broken if I left it there."

"Is there anything written in it?" Katherine, admittedly, was slightly tempted to see what the mystery person might've written, "Maybe you'll be able to find out who it belongs to by what they wrote."

"I guess I'll check when I get home." Ami's smile twitched a little, "But I'm sure whoever lost this'll just say."

"Why not look now?" Katherine asked, feeling a little guilty about wanting to pry into someone else's privacy, "I mean, with two of us working on it, we'll find the owner quicker, right?"

"Oh, would you look at that, here's my house, I should get in quick, my mom gets worried if I'm not home really quickly, even if I'm just standing outside." Ami giggled nervously, nudging Katherine gently to carry on, "You should be getting home too, it'll be dark soon."

"Of course." Katherine smiled, "Well, it was nice talking to you, Hayashi-san. I hope you find the owner of the notebook."

Four months later, L and Katherine were talking on MSN. Katherine had almost been the victim of a serial killer back in England before she decided to move to Japan, and L had been responsible for apprehending him. Since then, Katherine and L had kept in contact as friends, and today was a day when L had just wrapped up another case.

'I never would've guessed he did it like that' She typed, glad to have a moment to relax, 'How'd you figure it out?'

'It was quite simple once I had the final clue.' L responded, causing her to smile.

'That's what you always say.' She rolled her eyes, 'But it takes genius to be able to figure all that out so quickly.'

'Not really. It just takes a bit of abstract thinking.' He replied, 'I'm sure with enough time you could've done it.'

She blushed, quickly changing the subject, 'Have you heard about all those accidents?'

'Yes. To be honest I find some of them to be a little ridiculous despite proof. Perhaps a media stunt?'

'They're all quite ironic though, aren't they?' She replied almost without thinking.

'How do you mean?'

'Well, the first one reported was that man who was crushed by a ladder in Shinjuku. It was vaguely mentioned that he was afraid of heights…that's pretty ironic for an accident. And then there was the other one, when the guy accidentally drank insecticide. He was a botanist who hated insects eating his plants. And there's the third one, with the girl stabbed by scissors, the aspiring artist who specialised in collages…all of these accidents have a hint of irony to them, don't you think?'

There was a long pause before L typed his response, 'I'm coming to Japan. Do you have enough room at your apartment for me to stay for a while?'

She blinked, not quite understanding, 'I think so…why?'

'We have a case on our hands here. A series of ironic accidents seems too suspicious to be true.'

Katherine wasn't the best at finding her way around Kanto, even though she'd been living there a while. This was mainly because Katherine was always apprehensive about going out by herself, and having few friends to go out with meant she usually stayed near her flat unless she absolutely had to. Unfortunately, this meant Katherine was now stumbling around Kanto trying to find the airport in preparation for L's arrival the next day.

"It's hopeless." She sighed, looking around, bewildered and miserable, "I'll never find the airport and I won't be able to meet L there."

"Excuse me." A curious voice from behind Katherine startled her, "You seem a bit lost. Can I help?"

Katherine smiled at the stranger in front of her, "Thank you. I'm looking for the nearest airport to here. I'm supposed to be meeting-…a friend there tomorrow, so I figured it would be best to plan my route now."

The stranger smiled back, "Wise decision. I'll walk you there if you like, wouldn't want anything bad to happen on the way, and it's easier to show you where it is than explain it."

"That's kind of you." Katherine sighed with relief, and the two began walking.

"So what's your name?" The stranger asked.

"Katherine. Katherine Bennett." She replied, feeling a little awkward about talking to a stranger, "And yours?"

"Light Yagami." The stranger paused, then asked, "So, Katherine, did you hear about all those accidents that have been happening recently?"

She nodded, wondering if this conversation would lead anywhere, "Tragic, isn't it?"

"Indeed. But also highly suspicious…" Light trailed off, before picking up again, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course." She was by now intrigued by the peculiar Light Yagami.

"I don't think they're accidents." He said, his voice lowering slightly, "There's always some element of irony in it, an irony that after this many accidents is hard to think of as so accidental. Someone's making all these things happen."

"I thought the same thing." Katherine blurted out, surprised that someone else had the same path of logic as her, "I mean, some of the irony is just too ridiculous to be accidental."

"We have to tell someone." He decided, "There has to be an investigation, or whoever's organizing this will get away with it."

"Don't worry." She smiled, laughing somewhat nervously "I'm sure that the police or some detective'll notice eventually. After all, if two students could, surely the police is more than capable of coming to the same conclusion."

"What makes you say that?" He frowned, clearly the cogs ticking in his mind.

"No reason. I just have confidence that nothing unjust goes unpunished for long, and the police will have people smart enough to guess this." She was talking too quickly, so even if her excuse had been valid, Light could barely distinguish it.

"I don't mean to be rude, but you're hiding something." Light said bluntly, "And from what I can deduce, you must know some kind of detective, or someone in the police force."

I sighed, "If you meet me at the airport tomorrow, I'll see if me and my friend can explain things." She brightened up a second later, "We might get some decent help with you on the team."

The airport was packed when Katherine arrived, but had no trouble in spotting L amongst the crowds. She'd know the face of one of her fondest friends anywhere. And the fact he wasn't wearing any socks was a bit of a giveaway. Apparently he hadn't forgotten what Katherine looked like either, "Hey, Kit Kat, over here."

She smiled, wandering over to her friend and treating him to the tightest hug she'd ever given, "You made it here ok, L!"

"While we're here, it's best if you refer to me as Ryuzaki." He stated calmly, though he seemed a little off balance from the hug, "Why didn't you think I'd make it here alright?"

"No reason, I just figured…" She mumbled, her sentence dying away.

"Did she call you L?" Light raised an eyebrow, grinning, "And did he call you Kit Kat?"

"It's a nickname." Her cheeks suddenly turned bright red, then smiled, "Ryuzaki, this is Light Yagami, he came to the same conclusion I did about the accidents."

"Oh?" L seemed a bit shocked, but it was difficult to tell with someone who rarely had much expression, "That's quite the achievement, Yagami-san. Maybe we should talk once we get back to Katherine-chan's flat."

Katherine's flat was quite small, but with more than enough room for her and L to live, if Katherine slept on the sofa the three were now sitting on and they didn't have too many dinner guests.

"I'm stunned." Light said, unsure of how to respond to meeting a famous detective, "I had no idea you had contacts in Japan, or that you'd fly all the way out here for an unconfirmed case…you know the irony thing is just a theory…I've been thinking it over, and maybe they are all just accidental."

"However, this is a theory I find too interesting not to look into." L sipped at his tea, which he'd put at least five sugars in, something Light found perplexing but Katherine understood. She found tea much too bitter if she didn't load it with sugar, "We should at least look into similar accidents and see if we find any correlations between them. If we find enough correlation, there's a high chance that somebody had been putting these all in place, and we are, in fact, dealing with murder. If this is the case, we'll have to get the NPA involved somehow."

"Oh, that won't be a problem." Light grinned, "My Dad's a Detective-Superintendent, and I've helped him solve enough cases for him to hear me out. He should be able to persuade enough people that it's a valid case."

"Excellent." L smiled, something that didn't happen often, "Now, Kit Kat, are any of those cookies you've been carrying around going spare?"

"Hn? Oh, yeah, of course." Katherine laughed, a bit too loud and for too long, "I guess I forgot about them in all the excitement of planning our investigation." She opened the paper bag she'd been holding onto for the past hour or so, and handed a cookie to Light and a cookie to L, then started chewing happily on one of her own.

"White chocolate?" Light raised an eyebrow, "That's a little unusual."

"You got my favourite." L said, nearly spraying cookies crumbs everywhere, "That's kind of you."

"It's no problem. I like white chocolate cookies too. All the goodness of white chocolate in the wonderfulness of a cookie." She replied, managing to demolish her cookie at record speeds as opposed to L's approach of savouring every bite.

"So how did a sweet English girl meet a world famous detective?" Light pondered, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Katherine looked down at the floor, not answering. She didn't like to remember that day. She'd met L, but before that she'd been so scared…the knife had been so close…

"That's a delicate subject." L swallowed the last of his cookie, "It's best we leave the matter alone." Both L and Katherine dived their hands into the bag of cookies at the same time.

There was an awkward pause before Katherine drew her hand out, "You first."

L took a cookie, then paused, "Hold still, Kit Kat. There's something on your face."

"Oh, is there?" Katherine seemed a little panicked, "What? Where is it?"

"Don't worry." He lightly brushed the crumbs from the corner of Katherine's mouth with a finger, "It's gone now."

"I could've got it myself if you'd just told me where the crumbs were." Katherine mumbled, her embarrassment and awkwardness evident in her tone.

Light looked at his watch, looked back up, then had to double take, "That time already? I have to be getting home."

"That's a shame." L said in his usual monotone, "I suppose we'll have to begin investigating tomorrow."

"Bye, Yagami-san. Hope you have a safe journey," Katherine smiled, waving despite there not being any need to.

"See you tomorrow then, Katherine-san, Ryuzaki-san." Light smiled back and shut the door behind him.

"Nice guy." L sipped at his tea again, "We're fortunate to have someone like him on our side rather than the opposing side."


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: It's been a while since I updated, but I figured I may as well upload this completed chapter, even though nobody's reading this. Sorry if anyone's grossly OOC or anything, and please read, review and enoy ~ ^_^_

Chapter 2

"Made any progress?" L asked, peering over Katherine's shoulder at her laptop's screen.

"Quite a bit actually." Katherine smiled brightly, "I've managed to find 17 accidents with varying degrees of irony, the earlier ones being more subtle and the more recent ones are a tad more outlandish and unbelievable."

"Interesting…is there anything else similar between cases you noticed?" He asked, still leaning a little close for Katherine to be fully comfortable with.

"Um…well…there's one thing…most of the cases were convicted criminals who'd been released, either because they'd served their sentences or lack of evidence." Katherine paused, "Except these four…"

"Hn?" He scanned the cases she was referring to, "Oh, yes, those four girls…clean records, respectable students…that's strange…I found three cases like these four that didn't fit the killer's usual pattern. Either the killer is split in their motivation, or the larger set of murders is in place to cover the smaller set."

"Whoever it is, they don't seem to have the noblest of intentions." Katherine commented, "I mean, look at some of these deaths. No good person would go to all that trouble for justice. So, it seems reasonable that this person is working out of some warped emotion of some kind…and since all pre-meditated murder is born of hate…we have to find some common ground between the victims other than the fact some are convicted criminals and the rest are teenage girls."

There was a knock at the door and a voice oozing with a grin spoke, "Was that a theory I heard being worked out?"

"The door's open, Yagami-san." Katherine called, matching his grin as she explained what she and L had just been talking about.

"Interesting." Light paused, and came up with this little nugget of genius, "Perhaps the killer has dual motives. The first ones are all convicts before the student…perhaps this person is working for supposed justice, and suffered a lapse of judgement about this girl…and after that, every so often, they'd sneak in a student."

"Very good, Light." L tried to hand Light a sugar cube, but after earning himself a strange look, ate it himself and rested his chin on Katherine's shoulder while he explained, "From now on, we will work under the assumption that the killer is working with a sense of justice for the most part, but has spells of selfishness aimed at students. Now, Light, I want you to take over my laptop as researcher, can you find out about the schools those girls went to? And Kit Kat, I need you to find out about the areas where the convicted criminals were reported."

"What're you going to do?" Katherine frowned, "You'd better not be planning on just sitting around doing nothing." She paused for a minute, blushing at how forward she'd been, "I mean, we need your genius on this."

"Oh, don't worry." L moved from the sofa to sit _on the coffee table, knees tucked up by his chin as usual, "I'll be processing the information you turn up, so you don't have to worry about piecing it all together. Everyone clear?"_

_Light and Katherine both nodded with determination and began their work, L starting a stack of sugar cubes to pass the time._

_Ami sat at her desk, the light from her desk lamp all that was dispelling the darkness and lighting up her smirk. Once she'd gotten past the first couple of deaths, it was all too easy for her to mess with the world, and nobody suspected a thing. They were still under the impression these were all just somewhat amusing accidents, which was the beauty of it all. She got her kicks, while everybody else scratched their heads as to how anything like this could possibly happen in reality._

"_I never knew you humans were so much fun." Ryuk grinned, although it always looked like he was grinning so he could've been trying to glare for all Ami knew._

"_Quiet." Ami glared fiercely at Ryuk, then turned back to the blank page she was staring down at and tapping her pen on._

"_Why? Nobody else can hear me, so what does it matter?" Ryuk replied, more out of curiosity than anything._

"_I need to concentrate." Ami responded, not even bothering to turn this time, "It's difficult to think of deservedly ironic deaths."_

"_Why don't you pick off another of your rivals then? You've had a couple of kills since the last." He suggested, now peering over Ami's shoulder in case she wrote anything._

"_You really are stupid, Ryuk." Ami scalded, jabbing him sharply in the side, "If I have my rival's deaths too close, they'll start standing out more, and then the variety of victims will be broken, which is how murder is identified. I didn't watch all those murder mystery movies for nothing."_

"_So all those convicts were just to give a false lead?" Ryuk asked. Ami didn't usually talk to him much, too busy with family, homework or on her computer to need to talk to him at all other than to ask about the occasional rule of the Death Note. He'd already listed half the rules for her at her demand, and without so much as thanks. Still, she provided some entertaining deaths, and the Shinigami world had become so boring. It was decidedly worth her bad manners._

"_No. Those are a side-quest that conveniently disguises the deaths of my rivals." Ami's smirk widened, "My first aim when I started using this power was to punish those who weren't being punished as they should be, those who have committed crimes but haven't paid enough for them. But somewhere along the line, I got a little sidetracked with my rivalry with Misaki Watanabe. She was stealing my popularity after only a few days, and admittedly, I let my hatred cloud my judgement in that one. But I recovered. I covered it up with convicts, and eventually saw it as a gift. Now I can further my goal of achieving perfection by eliminating my competition." She sighed happily, "And then I can become the treasure of Kanto."_

"_I see. Putting your own motives above justice." Ryuk commented._

_She stopped tapping, dropping her pen and turning sharply and sternly to Ryuk, "Are you implying that I don't have the right to use this power as I see fit?"_

"_Not at all." Ryuk's smirk was conveyed better by his tone than his face, "It's just most humans wouldn't have the guts for this sort of work."_

"_Well, I'm not most humans." Ami replied, as if this sentence spoke for itself._

"_What makes you so special?" Ryuk retorted, laughing at how insolent Ami was in the face of a Shinigami. Most humans would've been too terrified to speak a word against him, let alone openly disrespect him, "You picked up the Death Note by chance, anyone of those students could've taken it."_

"_Ahh, you may think that. But Fate and luck work in mysterious ways." She picked her pen back up, "I have a theory that I was given this power because they knew I would use it to its maximum potential."_

"_They?" He would've raised an eyebrow if he'd had any._

"_The forces controlling Fate, of course." Ami smiled and laughed in a horrifically adorable way._

"_So, what do you have to report?" L asked after an hour of sitting on the table stacking sugar cubes, "Anything unusual?"_

"_Some of the convicts were only reported in Japan, the rest were worldwide reports, so we can narrow it down to Japan." Katherine responded, "And they were all pretty serious crimes."_

"_I can narrow it down even further." Light grinned, obviously proud he'd done a good job, "All the students are from schools in or near Kanto."_

"_It seems quite conclusive, but we have to be certain…" L sat thinking for a while in complete silence, then concluded, "We need to present our findings to the NPA as soon as possible. Then, we'll make a worldwide TV broadcast exclusively in Kanto."_

"_Why?" Light frowned._

"_Wait, how can it be worldwide if it's only on in Kanto?" Katherine's frown matched Light's._

"_Even if we're sure we're right, the NPA may not be so sure. So at least this way we can prove there's a case, and that our killer is working where we think they're working." L said, then added, "And you'll see, Kit Kat."_

"_I've been meaning to ask." Light said, sounding a little apprehensive, "Why do you call Bennett-san Kit Kat?"_

"_It comes from two traditional nicknames for people named Katherine, Kitty and Kat. I thought I'd be original and use both at the same time." L explained, shrugging, "And I gave her a Kit Kat on the day we met. She needed it. Trust me on that."_

"_I-I'll go get us some doughnuts." Katherine stood, smiling but really needed some time alone to calm down, "I know this place that does the best jam you'll ever taste."_

_Light looked at Katherine in a curious way, "I'll come with you. Wouldn't want anything bad to-"_

"_It's ok. Kit Kat can defend herself if need be." L said, a sentence that sounded oddly forceful despite sounding bored, "Do you still have that pepper spray?"_

_Katherine nodded, grabbing a bag from a side table, "I never leave home without it." She left hastily, leaving Light confused._

"_What…was that about?" He asked, trying to figure out what made Katherine act so strangely._

_On the way back from buying doughnuts, Katherine was feeling decidedly more positive. Nobody was intentionally making her remember, so everything would be fine. The investigation was going smoothly enough, and she found it oddly exhilarating working out a murder case, even if people were dying…_

_She paused by the grocer's as she saw a familiar face buying a bag of large apples. She smiled and waved, calling out to her friend, "Hayashi-san!"_

_Ami looked up to see Katherine racing towards her. She faultered, then smiled back, "Bennett-san, what a nice coincidence to see you."_

"_Did you find the owner of that notebook?" Katherine asked, eager for an update on that situation, "What did they write?"_

"_Huh?" Ami frowned, having completely forgotten for a moment, "Oh, right. It didn't have anything written in it, and nobody's said anything." She smiled, making some kind of cute half-giggle, "Guess I get to keep it then."_

"_So…" Katherine shuffled nervously from foot to foot, trying to conjure up a topic for conversation. Maybe if she talked about enough interesting things, she could make friends with Ami, "…you heard about all those weird accidents?"_

"_Yes. I didn't think much of them, just unfortunate that something so tragic actually has a little twist of comedy in it." Ami sighed, "I feel guilty for finding the funny side in them, but it's undeniably there."_

"_Well, um…I had a tiny theory about it." Katherine admitted awkwardly, "I just find the irony of them all a little odd…so I thought maybe it's not as accidental as it seems."_

_This caught Ami's interest, "Really? I never would've thought of it like that."_

"_Like I said, it's just a theory, I could be wrong." Katherine laughed, still nervous, "In fact, I probably am, ignore me." She'd already said too much for her own good. Honestly, if she let herself slip up like that once more soon someone would find out about the investigation who shouldn't._

"_That's a shame…well, I hope someone can figure out how these accidents are happening and stop them." Ami smiled brightly, taking an apple from the bag she'd paid for and swallowing a bite, "It's just awful hearing about all these people dying, don't you think?"_

_Katherine nodded, suddenly stern and serious, "I'll do everything I can to stop this."_

_Ami laughed, a light, soft sound like a small bell, "Good luck with that, Bennett-san." She turned to go, looking over her shoulder to wave and say, "Hope I see you later."_

_Katherine smiled, waving back, stunned at how nice Ami was being. Most of the girls at her school ignored her since she was always so quiet and shy. But Ami…Ami was different. She was kind, funny, the best friend Katherine could've hoped for. Maybe there really was such a thing as Fate._


End file.
